Omar Suleiman warned his government "can’t put up with continued protests" for a long time

For the sixteenth consecutive day, thousands of demonstrators were camped out Wednesday in central Cairo's Tahrir Square, maintaining their vigil after the biggest protests yet against President Hosni Mubarak's regime. Cairo's Liberation Square remains flooded with demonstrators calling on the President to immediately step down. The square resembled a tented city on Tuesday, with protesters refusing to budge until their demands fulfilled. The newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman warned on Tuesday that his government "can't put up with continued protests" for a long time. In a sharply worded statement reflecting the regime's impatience and frustration with the mass demonstrations, he said the crisis must be ended as soon as possible. Suleiman made the remark as over 50,000 protesters on Tuesday blocked newly-appointed Premier Ahmed Shafiq from entering his office in the Egyptian capital and called for his immediate resignation and all others in the cabinet. Suleiman said there will be "no ending of the regime" and no immediate departure for Mubarak, the state news agency MENA reported from a meeting between the vice-president and independent newspapers. Huge crowds on Tuesday also marched to the Interior Ministry and the parliament building in the capital despite the government's promise of constitutional reforms and an offer of pay rise to public sector workers. Egypt's second largest city, Alexandria, was also the scene of popular rallies against the regime. Thousands of Egyptian workers have gone on strike in the cities of Suez and Ismailia. At least three people died and 100 were wounded in two days of clashes between police and political demonstrators in a town in southern Egypt's New Valley region, a security official told AFP on Wednesday. Police fired live rounds Tuesday when local people rioted in the oasis town of El Khargo, the official said. Scores were wounded and three people died of their injuries on Wednesday. In the meantime, Mubarak met a senior Russian envoy Alexander Sultanov, deputy foreign minister and special Middle East envoy, at the presidential palace in Cairo, on Wednesday Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Tuesday that council envoys should go to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had previously said Egypt should resolve the political crisis through dialogue between Mubarak and his opponents, and has warned foreign powers not to issue "ultimatums" to the regime.